HomeMy WebLinkAboutThe Citizen, 2001-07-11, Page 1,
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' N HURON PUBLISH,N, - ,1•4f1
Inside this week
Pg. 7
Pg. 7
Morris-Turnberry
clerk retires
Area schools name
Ontario scholars
Pg.Holstein group
holds Twilight Tour
" Dumptruck original
rg• 16 back on stage
P -","
10 Reviews from Blyth
18' and Stratford
Watching grass grow
The rain held off enough to allow horticulturalists an opportunity to visit many area gardens•last
weekend. Gary and Marie Black of Clinton inspect the plants at Jan Vodden's Blyth property
last Saturday, July 7 during the first Huron Stewardship Garden Tour. (Mark Nonkes photo)
e Citizen
Serving the communities of Blyth and Brussels and northern Huron County
Volume 17 No. 28 Wednesday, July 11, 2001 75 Cents (70c + 5c GST)
Ambulance travel longer in N. Huron
Huron E.
passes
budget
It's official, taxes in the rural
wards of Huron East will be rising.
At the Huron East July 3 meeting
council passed the budget that will
see large tax hikes in the rural wards
of Grey, McKillop and Tuckersmith.
Owners of vacant farmland will
face the biggest tax hikes.
Little detail was available about
specific percentages and dollar
amounts. The process is very
complex, Clerk-Administrator Jack
McLachlan said.
In a telephone interview Mayor
Lin Steffler admitted a number of
councillors had to sit down with
treasurer Brad Knight for an
afternoon to figure out how the
taxation really worked.
Knight is presently on vacation so
was unavailable for comment.
Residential homes in urban areas
will be facing small jumps in taxes,
with Brussels and Seaforth receiving
the smallest hikes.
The new tax rates are comparable
to many other municipalities in the
county.
By Bonnie Gropp
Citizen staff
Plans for a skateboard park in
Blyth hit another snag at the July 3
meeting of North Huron council.
Clerk-Administrator John Stewart
said he contacted the municipal
insurance people because he had
heard of increased liability costs.
Information was included in
council's agenda from Frank Cowan
Company Ltd. There was no dollar
figure, Stewart explained, because it
would be different for each
municipality.
Also, Stewart said, because there
have not been any major claims to
this point there has been no precedent
set as to what responsibility a
municipality has.
Risk management, however, would
involve adequate supervision of the
park, controlled access, appropriate
signage, mandatory safety
equipment, first aid, participant
After a year of concerns expressed
about longer travel times for
ambulances because of
amalgamation and moving of
ambulance sites in central and
waivers, regular inspection and
maintenance and documentation.
Stewart said he also spoke to the
president of the lawn bowling club,
which is adjacent to the proposed
location for the park. "They think it
would be a distraction to the lawn
bowling activity," he said.
Director of Recreation Facilities
Dan Cousins had looked into the
possibility of a mobile park, which
includes a trailer. It costs $27,000 for
the base unit, which could be moved
to various locations in North Huron.
For a trial basis, however, they would
be looking at a trucking fee.
Councillor Archie MacGowan
questioned the remarks made at a
previous council meeting when a
delegation of skateboarders and
parents attended to request funding.
MacGowan, who wasn't present at
the last meeting, said he thought the
$10,000 the group requested from the
sale of Blyth PUC had already been
earmarked.
southern Huron, figures from the
first three months of operation show
the longest response times are in the
north of the county.
Figures presented to county
Councillor Jeff Howson said that
was true, that there had been five or
six specific groups or projects, then
the balance was to go to the
community centre. "I don't
remember the word recreation being
part of that and that was what I was
trying to make them understand. I
feel they have been misled."
Referring to all the work needed on
the Blyth arena, MacGowan felt
there would be no money left for a
park.
Howson noted that council had
asked for a site plan to be submitted
which had not been done. Also
Councillor James Campbell said
council had requested bylaws from
the group and these too had not been
handed in.
MacGowan also noted that there
would be a dollar value involved in
running the park.
There was concern as well about
usage. Stewart said he really didn't
know how many skateboarders there
council Thursday by Jon Hambides,
the county's consultant in setting up
its ambulance service, showed that
the Wingham ambulance station had
far more calls that exceeded the 15-
were in the township. "I've never
seen any in Wingham and there were
only about four or five causing
problems in Blyth. If there are very
few is it something you want to
spend money on?"
Cousins said that the mobile unit
would give them a chance to Lind out
how many would be interested.
However, Councillor Arnold Taylor
cautioned that this might not be
indicative of the real number as some
may turnout just because it's new.
Campbell agreed saying he would
be afraid of putting money into a fad
that would be gone in a couple of
years.
Deputy-Reeve Murray Scott
however, said he would be in favour
of trying the mobile unit. Also,
Cousins added that it can generate
advertising revenue while the trailer
can be used for other purposes.
Cousins is gathering more
information and will report back to
council at the next meeting. .
minute travel time that was the
county's goal for high-priority
calls than any of the three other
stations.
Hambides hastened to say that the
longer travel times in the north were
not the fault of paramedics at the
Wingham station. "We're really
pointing out that the Wingham
paramedics go ahead quietly doing
the best job they can under the
circumstances," he said, pointing.out
there are long distances between
ambulance stations in the northern
part of Huron and southern part of
Bruce.
Neil Rintoul, from Ashfield-
Colborne-Wawanosh, agreed, saying
that for the Lucknow area, the
Wingham station is still much closer
than the nearest Bruce County
station in Kincardine.
Warden Norm Fairies said in areas
of Howick, three ambulances —
Wingham, Listowel and Palmerston
— are all some distance from local
residents.
Hambides said council should
continue to look at how the northern
part of the county could be served
better but there's no pattern evident.
Many of the calls exceeding the
county's 15-minute target are
outside of Huron (the time is set for
calls within the county), but there
were still 20 over-target within
Huron. But projected for a year it
would mean only 60-80 calls a year
and, even if a pattern was detected, it
would not be cost efficient to set up
another ambulance station, he said.
Ambulance stations in Goderich,
Clinton/Seaforth and Exeter had few
calls that exceeded the 15-minute
target and those were generally in
response to car accidents outside the
normal coverage area (one Exeter
ambulance went to Goderich). In a
few instances bad winter weather
also slowed response.
In the southern end of the county
where the controversy has been most
heated following the county's
decision to close the Dashwood and
Zurich stations and consolidate in
Exeter, average response time
actually went down dramatically
because the majority of calls are in
Exeter and the new location
shortened responses.
Howver Paul Klopp, councillor for
Bluewater, said figures showed
response times had definitely
increased for residents along the
lakeshore, even if the number of
people involved was fewer than the
number in Exeter.
"You can't say there are only 10
calls," he said. "They're still
people." While the consultant
provided cold facts, he said, "It's up
to us to realize it's not just dollars
and cents. If we have to buy another
ambulance, maybe we have to look
at it."
Hambides pointed out, however,
it's not the price of an ambulance
that increases costs- but the cost of
salaries for paramedics to staff it. He
estimated it would likely cost
$250,000 a year to add an ambulance
station to shorten responses to either
the lakeshore area or the county's
northern extremities. Even then, he
said, that ambulance would likely
spend most of its time being called
back into areas of greater population
density.
Skateboard park hits new snag